Monday, 8 March 2010

Army opts for Nag missile as it enters final trials

The Nag being fired during trials from a BMP based Nag Missile Carrier (NAMICA)

by Ajai Shukla

Hyderabad Missile Complex

Business Standard, 8th March 2010

In Rajasthan, this May, the indigenously developed Nag (Cobra) missile will undergo a final round of trials before entering service in the Indian Army’s arsenal. Developed by the Defence R&D Laboratory (DRDL) in Hyderabad, the army is delighted with how the Nag has performed in a series of earlier trials. A senior army officer calls it, “the world’s deadliest anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).

So confident is the army about the Nag that, even before trails are completed, it has budgeted Rs 335 crores for buying 443 Nag missiles, which will be manufactured at the public sector Bharat Dynamics Limited. The missiles will equip Reconnaissance and Support Battalions, mechanised units that locate and destroy enemy tanks.

In trials last summer six Nag missiles were fired at tanks 3-4 km away; each of them hit their target precisely. Next month the Nag must demonstrate its capability at its minimum range of 500 metres.

“Since the Nag travels at 230 metres per second, it has just 2 seconds to align itself to a target that is 500 metres away. But we are confident that the Nag will meet this requirement during the forthcoming trials”, the DRDL’s Officiating Director, Amal Chakrabarti, told Business Standard during a visit to the Hyderabad missile complex.

The Nag is a third-generation (Gen-3), “fire-and-forget” missile; once it is fired, its seeker automatically guides the missile to even a fast-moving tank. In earlier-generation missiles an operator had to guide it all the way, often exposing himself to enemy fire. The world has just a handful of “fire-and-forget” missiles, such as the American Javelin, and the Israeli Spike. The Javelin and the Spike are lighter missiles that can be carried by a soldier; the Nag is a heavier and more powerful missile designed to operate from vehicles and helicopters.

While the infrared seekers of the Javelin and the Spike can be jammed, the Nag’s optical guidance system makes it virtually jam-proof. The indigenous development of an imaging seeker, a highly complex and closely guarded technology, is the Nag’s greatest triumph.

Here’s how it works. Nag missile operators search for enemy tanks through thermal imaging telescopes, which see as well by night as they do by day. Picking up a tank, the operator locks the Nag’s seeker onto the target. A digital snapshot of the target is automatically taken, which serves as a reference image. As the Nag streaks towards the target, at 230 metres per second, the seeker takes repeated snapshots of the target; each one is compared with the reference image, and deviations are translated through on-board algorithms into corrections to the Nag’s control fins, which steer the missile precisely at the target.

This method of firing is termed “lock-on before launch” or LOBL. In the pipeline is an even more sophisticated method --- “lock-on after launch” or LOAL --- for the helicopter-mounted Nag, or HELINA, which can target a tank 7 kilometres away. Since the target will seldom be visible at such a distance, the missile operator launches the HELINA in the general direction of the target. As it flies towards the target, the Nag’s seeker downlinks to the missile operator images of the area ahead; after travelling 3-4 kilometers, i.e. after about 12-16 seconds, the operator will be able to identify enemy tanks. He will lock the seeker onto the tank he wishes to destroy, and the command will be uplinked to the missile in mid-flight. After that, the missile homes in onto the target and destroys it.

The Nag provides its operator with another important tactical advantage. The plume of burning propellant from the tail of most missiles gives away its flight path and allows the target to get behind cover. The Nag, in contrast, is visible only during the first one second of flight, when the missile’s booster imparts 90% of the momentum; after that, a sustainer maintains the missile’s speed, burning a smokeless propellant that is practically invisible.

Acceptance of the Nag missile into service will be a triumphant conclusion to the Defence R&D Organisation’s (DRDO’s) long-delayed, but eventually successful, Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). Initiated in 1983 by then DRDO boss, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the IGMDP set out to develop five missiles: the Agni and Prithvi ballistic missiles; the Akash and Trishul anti-aircraft missiles; and the Nag ATGM. Only the Trishul will have failed to be accepted into service.

Ajai sirUS army has fired the Javelins in India. Is there a chance to reduce weight of NAG block 2 missiles and make it man portable.

Will these be ever exported. By the way, any news on HELINA.

One more sometime

back to one of my querries you said 'Its a waste of time and money to canisterize the already available missiles.' But the DRDO is reportedly working on canister version of every missile it has developed.

Ajaiji, Could u give a little bit more insight into why Nag is so-good to be called "best ATGM" by Army?I mean the Spike-MR/LR also cannot be jammed coz..it has IIR+fibre-optic command link to firing station..and as is demonstrated in videos..has a laser pointer+seeker onboard the Spike that lets the user to define within inches of accuracy which part of tank to hit realtime plus the obvious fact that Spike can do Lock-On-After-Launch to hit non-line-of-sight targets!

Thanks for this great news. You have also taken the pains to describe how the Nag will be operationally used. I have a few questions which you can hopefully answer:

a) You mention an optical seeker. Is this used in parallel with the IIR seeker for daytime operations? Reason I ask is that optical seekers wont work at night

b) If there is an IIR seeker as well, has that also been indigenized? The imported IIR seeker has been mentioned as one of the reasons for the relatively high cost of Nag (though the Nag of course compares quite favorably with say the PARS 3LR cost-wise)

c) Summer trials were completed in July 2009. Why was the "minimum range" scenario not tested back then. Was that a lack of foresight by the IA or was Nag not ready for this scenario back then?

The cost u mentioned in the article is Rs 335 crores for 443 Nag missiles. Is that the cost of just the missile Projectiles or the entire Nag Missile and delivery system. And how does it compare with the its global competitors in terms of performance and cost? U have also mentioned that Nag is a heavier system . Is there a plan to have a lighter, Javelin type NAG which can be operated by our soldiers from places where the BMP cannot go?

Great work Ajai ji , Your reports are truly path breaking. Keep up the good work.

Sujith: Manportable Nag? Unlikely without reducing its range from 4 km to 2500 metres. That's the range of the manportable Javelin.

BadIndian: the HELINA is the same size as the vehicle mounted Nag. It can't get any smaller anytime soon without reducing range.

Jay: it's the army's opinion that the Nag is the best missile for their requirements. I, alas, have tested neither the Nag, nor the Spike, nor the Javelin.

Prem Kumar: It has an IIR seeker. Indigenous.

The reason why the Nag needs testing down to 500 metres is that the version tested last year had a minimum range of 800 metres. The army now wants 500 metres minimum.

Tushar: The Rs 335 crores buys 13 carriers and 443 missiles. This, naturally, is only an initial order. As the Nag is inducted into service and more units are converted, the order seems likely to increase manifold.

Ajay, Extract from Wikipedia: The missile’s fire-and-forget capability has been established using the day version of the IIR passive seeker.In its IIR form the Nag has limited all weather capability. This has given added impetus to develop the mmW seeker. Efforts are on to provide special embedded on-board hunters, that can hunt for targets using ‘day seekers’ and ‘day-&-night seekers’.

In your reply to one of the posts, you wrote, "As the Nag is inducted into service and more units are converted, the order seems likely to increase manifold."

Apart from equipping the R&S battalions, do you forsee IA raising/converting dedicated ATGM Battalions with NAMICA?If I remember correctly, IA had(has?) dedicated ATGM Battalions in Brigade of Guard? Also, will such a weapon have role to play in the Recce Regiments of Armored Divisions?Thank you.

Uh-oh!The army now wants minimum close in engagement at 500 down from 800.

Why at such close distance?

Are there not other alternatives,smaller,cheaper,more portable at such small distances.The present Nag launcher system is on a modified BMP.

Will not such a close distance make them more vulnerable.I think the emphasis has to be on engagement from stand-off distance.Further -the better.Hope the army does not want an all-in-all missile from just one system.There will have to be a mix of systems,NO one system will address all needs at once.And that Nag's induction is any way adversely affected due to that.

What is the cost of a Nag Missile. In Aero India 2009, BR People reported that each NagMissile costs about 75 lakh but that costs includes the imported IIR seeker. Since, now you are saying IIR seeker is indigenous how much each nag missile costs. Any idea?

the dawn is his personal blog and not The Dawn newspaper. read his link to get what this fellow is, a typical frothing at the mouth internet-warrior from pakistan. do you want to give coverage to people like this here ?

The NAG was originally touted to mount three types of mutually exclusive seekers - the millimetric wave, the imaging IR & the optical (day channel) ones. Which ones are at work here ? The optical seeker is useless in poor visibility or darkness, the IIR one can be 'seduced' like the SPIKE & Javelin while the MMW seeker is yet to come. So whats all the brouhaha about ?

Anyways, I hope DRDO can spin-off the optical LOBL (Lock-On-Before-Launch) technology to an Auto-Tracking capability for the Arjun TI sights-FCS combine.

And yes, the proof of NAG versatility lies in its stability during storage. The current crop of Russian-origin ATGMs (Konkurs & Faggot) are giving the infantry & mechanised infantry honchos sleepless nights due to their phenomenally high number of technical failures during practice firings. These have been attributed to poor manufacture practices & even poorer tolerance to storage conditions. Lets see a NAG deliver on its performance after 6-8 years in field storage & handling by our desi soldiers.